18 Months and STILL going strong..

"Anne Rogers" wrote in message
before he went to nursery, he slept perfectly, went down for a nap twice a
day, with literally me saying it was nap time, changing his nappy and
popping him in bed and leaving the room, similarly at night, but with DH
doing it, as soon as he started at nursery, we were getting his daily
reports saying he had only slept an hour, when he would usually sleep 4+
in
the day time, night times got really difficult, both the putting to bed
and
the staying asleep, naptimes when he wasn't at nursery were a nightmare.
These problems have persisted, though he is much improved, it has taken a
lot of work from both me and DH, when other interupting events have
occured
such as Ada's birth, or moving, things have got temporarily very bad and
then gone back to the manageable state. He was never the greatest sleeper
as
a baby, so it is partly constitutional, but he was very settled for a few
months before he went to nursery and we haven't gone back to that ever, so
I
do feel that we are genuinely still suffering the affects, I accept that
he
wasn't likely to be a perfect sleeper anyway, but I don't think it would
have been quite so bad if it hadn't have been for that disturbance.

I don't remember how old your son is, but I am guessing around 2-3 years
old? However, it doesn't sound at all abnormal for a child of that age to
start not sleeping well and giving up naps. When DD3 was 3 yrs old, she
started having night terrors, she started to become afraid of monsters,
etc.... and she gave up her afternoon nap. All my girls gave their nap up
at around 3 yrs old. There is a lot going on developmentally at that age.
They are trying to figure themselves out and sometimes it does result in
sleep being messed up. It sounds normal to me and I wouldn't be blaming
school for it even though you started having problems about the same time.
--
Sue (mom to three girls)

I don't remember how old your son is, but I am guessing around 2-3 years
old? However, it doesn't sound at all abnormal for a child of that age to
start not sleeping well and giving up naps. When DD3 was 3 yrs old, she
started having night terrors, she started to become afraid of monsters,
etc.... and she gave up her afternoon nap. All my girls gave their nap up
at around 3 yrs old. There is a lot going on developmentally at that age.
They are trying to figure themselves out and sometimes it does result in
sleep being messed up. It sounds normal to me and I wouldn't be blaming
school for it even though you started having problems about the same time.

when he went to nursery he was 15months, so not ready to give up naps and
very obviously overtired if he didn't get them and our problems started
literally the first day he went as he would not go to sleep in an unfamiliar
place, so he would fall asleep on the way home, which then pushed bed time
back to 10pm or later, then on the days he wasn't there he wouldn't nap in
the regular fashion at home, so he was very overtired creating more bed time
problems, it's only been in the past couple of months that naps have not
been a problem, he is old enough now to know he needs one and he goes and
finds somewhere to settle down and have one. So I don't feel that his change
in behaviour was normalfor his age.

Anne